Xihai Zhao1, Huilin Zhao2, Jinnan Wang3, Feiyu Li4, Jie Sun5, Jianrong Xu2, Chun Yuan, 15
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Beijing, China; 2Department of Radiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Renji Hospital, Shanghai, China; 33. Philips Research North America, Briarcliff Manor, NY, United States; 4Department of Radiology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China; 5Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
Neurological symptoms caused by advanced carotid atherosclerosis with intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) or fibrous cap rupture (FCR) may exist as these lesions detection. As such, investigation of carotid lesions before advanced stage might be helpful for stroke prevention. Recently, Underhill et al proposed carotid atherosclerosis score (CAS) that effectively stratifies plaques risk of developing future IPH/ FCR. This study investigated the incidence of high-risk lesions determined by CAS in symptomatic patients. We found a substantial number of lesions with higher CAS value exist in carotid arteries with low grade stenosis, suggesting the necessity of direct characterizing LRNCs using black-blood MRI techniques.